BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
LOU CORREA, CHAIRMAN
Bill No: AB 1806
Author: Cook
Version: As amended March 26, 2012
Hearing Date: June 12, 2012
Fiscal: Yes
Consultant: Donald E. Wilson
SUBJECT OF BILL
Veteran interment
PROPOSED LAW
1. Require the public administrator of a county to report
unclaimed remains to county veteran service officers to
determine if the remains belong to a veteran or veterans
dependent.
2. When a determination is made that remains are those of
a veteran or dependent according to section 952 of the
Military and Veterans Code, the county veteran service
officer (CVSO) shall report to the Department of Veterans
Affairs the identity and contact information for the
remains.
3. Mandates the department of veterans affairs to maintain
a list of those identified remains.
4. Changes the minimum timeline for claiming remains from
one year to 45 days.
5. Changes references to the "Veterans Administration" to
the "United States Department of Veterans Affairs."
EXISTING LAW AND BACKGROUND
1. California Military and Veterans Code (MVC) section
940 defines veteran as any honorably discharged
veteran from the armed forces of the United States.
2. MVC section 940.5 includes cremation in the
definition of "'burial' and 'internment'".
3. MVC section 941 exempts residents of the state
veterans' homes from the definition of these sections.
4. MVC section 942 requires that each county board of
supervisors designate "an honorably discharged
soldier, sailor or marine in the county?who shall
cause to be decently interred the body of any veteran
or widow of a veteran who dies in the county without
having sufficient means to defray the expenses of
burial, other than moneys paid or due and payable by
the United States, pursuant to the World War adjusted
compensation act."
5. The World War adjusted compensation act was passed
in 1924 over the veto of President John Calvin
Coolidge. The compensation act was a series of
payments over 20 years to help make veterans whole for
the money they lost not working in the factories and
other employ while those who did not serve stayed home
and got promotions. Since 1944 is long past, the
clause regarding the adjusted compensation act does
not matter at this point.
6. MVC section 943 forbids the burial of any veteran
in a pauper's grave.
7. MVC section 944 provides for the burial of a
veteran even if the person so designated by the county
board of supervisors (BOS) is unavailable at the time
to bury a veteran.
8. MVC section 946 provides that if a veteran dies in
other than his county of residence that the county
burying that veteran shall be reimbursed by the county
of residence.
9. MVC section 948 requires the clerk of the BOS to
make application to the proper authorities of the
United States for a headstone as authorized by the
Congress of the United States of America.
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10. MVC section 949 requires BOS to
"perpetually maintain" these graves. MVC sections
960, 960.5, and 961 all also deal with the required
care of veterans' graves.
11. Defines "cremated remains" to mean the
ashes and bone fragments of a human body that are left
after cremation in a crematory, including ashes from
the cremation container. (Health & Safety Code
Section 7002.)
12. Defines "interment" to mean the
disposition of human remains by entombment or burial
in a cemetery or, in the case of cremated remains, by
inurnment, placement or burial in a cemetery, or
burial at sea. (H&S 7009.)
13. Requires licensed funeral directors,
embalmers, and cemetery personnel, prior to
disposition of cremated remains, to do all of the
following:
a) Remove the cremated remains from the
place of cremation in a
durable container.
b) Keep the cremated remains in a durable
container.
c) Store the cremated remains in a place
free from exposure to the
elements.
d) Responsibly maintain the cremated remains.
(H&S Sec. 7054.6(b).)
e) Provides that the right to control the
disposition of the remains of a deceased person
and the location and conditions of interment,
unless other directions have been given by the
decedent, vests in, and the duty of disposition
and the liability for the reasonable cost of
disposition of the remains devolves upon, the
following in the order named: (1) an agent under
a power of attorney for health care, as
provided; (2) the surviving spouse; (3) surviving
adult children; (4) surviving parents; (5)
surviving adult children; (6) surviving adult
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person in the next degree of kinship; (7) the
public administrator when the deceased has
sufficient assets. (H&S Sec. 7100(a).)
14. AB 1644 of 2010 (Nielsen) required a cemetery
authority, corporation,
or association in possession of cremated
remains to give information to
a veterans' service organization (VSO) upon
meeting the following
conditions
VSO has determined the remains are a veteran or
veteran dependent eligible for burial in national or
state cemetery
VSO has made a reasonable effort to locate the
agent or family member who has the right to control
the remains
Agent or family member has made no attempt to
claim the remains
The remains have remained unclaimed for at
least one year
a. Exempted cemetery authority, corporation, or
association from "civil
liability except in willful or wanton
misconduct
b. Required VSO to take all "reasonable steps"
to inter remains
received according to this chapter.
c. Exempted VSO from negligence if the VSO did not
know or have
reason to know that the remains were not released
in compliance with
this bill.
COMMENT
1. Proposed section 951.5 refers to a "public
administrator of the county." The individual in that
position is designated by MVC section 942, but that section
does not reference a public administrator. Rather that
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section refers to an "administrative officer." For
purposes of clarification and continuity, the new proposed
section should reference the administrative officer as is
done in MVC section 942.
RECOMMENDED AMENDMENT - "The administrative officer of the
county designated according to section 942 of this code
shall report all unclaimed remains?"
2. In 2010 there was a problem with the ability to claim
veteran cremains, which is what resulted in AB 1644
(Nielsen). Dedicated volunteers now do this job. Is there
now a need to involve government entities with a potential
cost? Are those who are presently doing the job failing at
it?
According to the author's office, "There is currently no
requirement for a county administrative officer to make
inquiries to determine whether an unclaimed body is that of
a veteran or the dependent of a veteran. This could lead to
many veterans going without a proper military burial.
Additionally, there is no statewide list of the unclaimed
remains of veterans and veterans' dependents that can be
consulted by veterans' remains organizations."
3. The questions in comment two come into play when
considering that the CVSOs and the California Department of
Veterans Affairs (CDVA) are doing more with less every
year.
There is a nationwide backlog of over 1 million living
veterans who are presently being denied benefits by the
federal veterans administration. If ten to twelve percent
of those veterans are in California, then over 100,000
California veterans and their families are needing help
through the system. When veterans' remains organizations
are already filling this void, should the department and
CVSOs spend time and shrinking resources on a project that
is already done without government help?
4. This bill decreases the amount of time to claim remains
from one year to 45 days. This may not be the best policy.
After one year, it is unlikely that anyone is going to
claim those remains. Most unclaimed remains are because
there is no family or distant family. In the case of
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distant family it may take a few weeks to find the next of
kin. It will only take one newspaper story of a second
cousin or a great nephew who came to get his cousin or
uncle only to find the government took him to erase the
good work that has been done by SB 1644 of 2010 or the
potential good that this bill could do.
While the intent of not wanting to leave cremains on a
shelf is good, discretion is likely the better part of
valor when taking someone's loved ones.
RECOMMENDED AMENDMENT - Strike the 45 days clause and leave
the law as is on this point.
SUPPORT
American Legion, Department of California
AMVETS, Department of California
California Association of County Veteran Service Officers
California Sate Commanders Veterans Council
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Department
of California
Vietnam Veterans of America, California State Council
OPPOSE
None received
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